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Soldier in God's Army

Soldier in God's Army

Monday, September 3, 2012

Chastisements and References

27 de Agosto, 2012

Sorry for last week. I spent my time on the computer translating an
Ensign article (not available in Spanish) and typing it up to post in
the church. Hopeful it will be worth it and will compel the members to
start working and giving us references.

Since I haven't written in 2 weeks, there's a good amount to talk
about this week.

We're still a Trio, haven't had any changes. Now we're thinking we'll
probably be a Trio for the rest of this transfer. We'll see how it
goes. My companions' names are Elder Garfias and Elder Conde.

So I started up a new work-out in the mornings. Every day I do 125
push-ups in 4 sets, with my perfect-push-ups (makes it harder). We
have a barbell made out of a steel bar with big ol' concrete blocks on
both ends. So I use it to do 125 barbell bicep curls in 4 sets as well. Then
I have this crazy ab-workout where I do 2250 crunches (in 3 sets),
mixing up straight crunches and side-twist crunches to work my obliques.
Pretty crazy. I've been doing this for the last 3 weeks. Next week
I'll make it harder.

So far I have lost about 25 pounds here. I only weigh 205 lbs. I'm the
lightest I have been since Junior year in high school.

Remember Memo and Vicky? Elder Lopez and I dropped them about 8 weeks
ago. We just picked Memo back up. Turns out, during the entire time
that we weren't teaching him, he was still reading the Book of Mormon.
He read it in about 2 months, the last half in less than a week. We're
just waiting for him to start coming to church again so he can get
baptized.

Antonio went to church this last Sunday! We are working with him and
are getting him ready for baptism.

Francisco got baptized the 11th of August, and the picture is
attached. I also took a few pictures with the families here including
Families Medina, Moncada, and Ruiz. Also, Oscarín and Oscar's crazy
powerfully modded "Sustang" are attached, along with pictures from the
last district and zone meeting, with pictures of the Zone and
District.

Last Sunday was awesome! we got 5 new investigators in one day!
Chayito (reference de Hna. Moncada) and a few others were references.
Something else awesome happened. Eusebia is one of the new
investigators. She felt like she wasn't alright with God, and she was
walking in the street when she saw the chapel. She felt like, for some
reason she didn't know, she needed to attend the church. She found out
when the services were and went the next Sunday, and now we're
teaching her and she is progressing pretty well.

I have had the privilege of seeing the complete conversion process for
2 of my investigators. Juan and Francisco both started off with me
teaching them the first lesson, until they had all the lessons,
completed every commitment without failing once, got baptized and
confirmed, and just recently had the Aaronic Priesthood conferred upon
them. I have seen them both bless the sacrament now. It has been a
pretty powerful experience with them.

We had to drop Thalia again. She wasn't progressing. In the last
lesson, we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We explained every step
thoroughly, with a little extra focus on repentance. I invited her to
be baptized, and she said yes. And it was totally normal. Then I gave
her the date and invited her to prepare herself for that date, when
she said no and suddenly burst into tears and cried for about 10
minutes. After that we tried to figure out what was going on, waiting
in silence, asking questions, but she just sat there in silence. So we
ended with a prayer and left, saying that she can tell us when she
wants to continue. We didn't think she was going to go to church last
Sunday, but to our surprise she went. More than that, she said the
closing prayer in the Gospel Principles class without hesitating! We
have no idea what's going on in her head. Any ideas? My other
missionary friends: Elders Hawkins, Eppich, Andersen, Morris, Denney -
any suggestions or ideas for what we can do?

Last Friday we had a Ward Family Home Evening, in the which we
received another 6 references, 5 of which have turned out to be new
investigators. I can't wait for the success we're going to have with
them.

I got to give a talk again this last Sunday. I didn't find out until
late the night before, so I pretty much had to wing it. Luckily, I'm
now speaking Spanish fluently, even enough to improvise an entire
talk. It actually turned out pretty good, and pretty powerful, and
lasted about 12 minutes. First our ward mission leader gave a talk and
pretty much chastised the entire congregation for not working and
giving references. Next I talked, then Elder Conde, then Elder
Garfias. Hopefully after all that, the members will start helping us
out a bit more.

Well I gotta go again, but I'm pretty sure this next week will bring
success. Until Next week!